Congress MP Sasikanth Senthil on Tuesday criticised the Election Commission’s ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, alleging that it is being conducted in a “very, very strange mode” and in violation of the Commission’s own guidelines.
Calling SIR a “very comprehensive exercise” comparable to a census, Senthil said it is effectively like “writing the voter list from scratch again,” requiring house-to-house visits and verification of whether people are present and “ordinarily residing” at the stated address.
He said a voter’s name must meet three conditions to be included in the electoral roll: citizenship, completion of 18 years of age, and domicile, which he described as whether the person is ordinarily residing in that place.
He claimed that there is no clear definition of “ordinarily resident,” and argued that since many people travel for work, Booth Level Officers (BLOs) need to take an “informed decision” after gathering information on whether a person actually resides at the registered address.
Describing SIR as complex, Senthil said such an exercise typically takes significant time. He claimed that when it was carried out earlier, it was done over two years.
‘Enumeration Form’ and one-month deadline
Senthil alleged that the present SIR method includes an Enumeration Form with “different rules,” which voters must fill and submit, and that the task is being required to be completed within one month.
“Now SIR is being pushed by the election commission; the reason is best known to them. They are violating every guideline set by them,” he said, adding that the “recent SIR incident’s method is not making sense to anyone at all.”
De-duplication software and Bihar SIR
Senthil said earlier revisions used a de-duplication software to flag duplicate voter entries for field verification. If a person was registered in more than one booth or district, he said the system flagged the match and BLOs then conducted ground verification focused on ordinary residence, after which duplicate entries were deleted if the person was not an ordinary resident.
He said the software was run repeatedly during annual revisions, with the Election Commission sending lists to District Election Officers (DEOs) for re-verification, and claimed the same system was followed “even before the Lok Sabha elections in 2023.”
However, Senthil alleged that during the Bihar SIR after the Lok Sabha elections, the Election Commission decided not to use the de-duplication software, saying it was “not good enough,” and conducted the Bihar SIR without any de-duplication process.
He claimed that the Bihar voter list “reportedly still contains around 14.5 lakh duplicate entries,” citing the Reporters’ Collective, and said the Commission’s shift from a process it had “praised until 2023” was “deeply concerning.”
‘No training’, ‘changing rules every day’
Senthil said that when an Enumeration Form is issued for a voter, the BLO updates the person’s information and re-checks it, but “what to do next is not clear.”
He alleged that BLOs are being made to implement new directives daily “without any training,” and said that verifying citizenship would require ground-level re-checking. He warned that if decisions are made merely by putting check marks on the form, it would “increase the problem,” and said the “exploited and deprived” would face difficulties due to SIR.
He further alleged that a lack of transparency, daily rule changes, and absence of written clarifications are creating nationwide doubt, and claimed BLOs are under pressure. “That’s why they are coming under pressure, and we have also heard about several suicides in the past few days,” he said.
Senthil also claimed that draft lists from multiple states “besides UP” have been released, and added, “I believe that 10-15% of such genuine voters will have their names deleted.”
Congress demands ‘transparent paper’ on process
Referring to Rahul Gandhi’s earlier press conference on alleged voter list irregularities, Senthil said that even during SIR, irregularities are continuing to come to light. He alleged that the Election Commission, after Congress presented evidence of “vote theft,” began pushing “SIR-SIR,” despite having stated for years that the voter list was “completely clean.”
“We from the Congress party demand that the Election Commission come out with a transparent paper on the exact process they’re following,” he said.
Senthil sought clarification on when de-duplication was started or stopped in different phases, whether it is being done currently, and asked for an explanation about “that new app” he alleged is being used for “logical discrepancies.” He urged the Commission to provide a “proper explanation to the country.”
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